Recontextualization of Science from Lab to School: Implications for Science Literacy

Scientists’ science differs remarkably from school science. In order to be taught to students, science is recontextualized from scientific research communities to science classrooms. This paper examines scientific discourse in scientific research communities, and discusses its transformation from an internally-persuasive and authoritative discourse to a purely authoritative discourse under recontextualization. It presents the challenges that recontextualization of science poses for achievement of science literacy goals, and discusses remedial steps that science education community can take to meet them.     

Factors affecting service learning implementation: a comparison of novice and veteran teachers

This qualitative study investigated factors that facilitate and hinder implementation of service learning for novice and veteran teachers. We conducted case studies of three novice teachers and three veteran teachers, using a cross-case analysis within and across groups. Confirming prior research, facilitating factors included teachers’ knowledge of service learning and availability of time for planning and enacting it. Some novel factors contributing to the literature included student characteristics and common core pressures. Findings indicated differing needs of novice and veteran teachers for learning about and implementing service learning. Study implications and limitations are addressed.     

Knee extensor fatigue developed during high-intensity exercise limits lower-limb power production

We investigated the association between changes in vastii electromyography (EMG) and knee extensor fatigue during high-intensity cycling, and the subsequent effect on lower-limb power and intermuscular coordination during all-out cycling. On two separate days, participants completed 30-s all-out cycling or 10-min of high-intensity cycling followed by 30-s all-out cycling. EMG for gluteus maximus (GMAX), rectus femoris (RF), vastii (VAS), hamstrings (HAM) and gastrocnemius (GAS); co-activation for GMAX/RF, VAS/HAM and VAS/GAS; isometric maximal voluntary force (IMVF) and resting twitch (RT) of the knee extensors were measured. VAS EMG increases during high-intensity cycling (6% to 14%, P < 0.05) were negatively correlated (r = ?0.791, P < 0.05) with knee extensor IMVF decreases (?2% to?36%, P < 0.05) following the exercise. Knee extensor IMVF decreases were positively correlated (r = 0.757, P < 0.05) with all-out cycling power reductions (0% to ?27%, P < 0.05). VAS/GAS co-activation did not change (P > 0.05) during all-out cycling while VAS and GAS EMG decreased. Larger increase in VAS EMG during high-intensity cycling was associated with greater knee extensor fatigue and larger power reduction during all-out cycling. High VAS/GAS co-activation potentially limited power reduction induced by knee extensor fatigue during all-out cycling.     

Principals’ talking back to mediatised education policies regarding school performance

Increasingly mediatised policy processes influence practice in schools as education becomes a site of parental anxiety and choice exacerbated by standardised national assessment and ranking of schools in the media. This paper analyses the responses to media scrutiny of six principals whose schools’ national test results were reported in the Australian press following the release of the federal Labour Government’s MySchool website in 2010. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of social fields, the concept of cross-field effects, and associated research on mediatisation, the evidence suggests that the relationships between the press, education policy and schools are highly contested, and that principals have some agency in talking back regarding their school’s reported ‘performance’.     

Do clickers work for students with poorer grades and in harder courses?

We studied the impact of clickers, also known as electronic student response systems, on the performance of students on two undergraduate finance courses. Consistent with some of the recent literature, we found that clickers have very little impact on student performance, as measured by final course grades. Further, we found that clickers do not have a significant impact on course grades for students in relation to their designated performance ability (weak versus strong) or whether the course in question is less or more difficult. However, after simultaneously controlling for course difficulty and student aptitude, we found that clickers have a meaningfully positive impact on the performance of poorly performing students on more challenging quantitative courses. Our results suggest that the impact of clickers on student performance may depend on the type of student (academically weak, average or strong) and the type of course (average or difficult). This finding has particular implications for curriculum planners at the post-secondary level, although the findings may also have application at the secondary school level.     

Examining Disparities in Student Discipline: Mapping Inequities from Infractions to Consequences

Mounting evidence indicates that students of color are more likely than their white peers to receive exclusionary discipline (out-of-school suspensions and expulsions), but alleviating these disparities requires an understanding of what drives them. In this study, we use seven years of student- and infraction-level data from every public school in Arkansas to examine disproportionalities within and across districts and schools. Prior analyses of the same data found that black students are more likely to receive exclusionary discipline than their white peers, even after controlling for the nature and number of disciplinary referrals, but most of the differences occur between schools, rather than within. We build on these findings in two ways: (a) by estimating the racial disparities in the likelihood of referral for particular infraction types and (b) by estimating whether the racial disproportionalities in the use of exclusionary discipline, after controlling for reported behavior, differ according to the types of infractions reported. We find that for common, subjective infractions, black students are at a higher risk of referral and at a higher risk of exclusionary discipline, conditional on referral. In addition, disparities appear to be driven by differences across school districts (rather than within). These findings have important implications for designing and targeting discipline reforms where they are needed most.     

Imagined Adulthood: Resources,plans and contradictions

In this paper we illustrate the contradictory consequences of female individualization by exploring young people's imagined futures, drawing on an analysis of 'lifelines' collected as part of an ongoing longitudinal qualitative study of young people's transitions to adulthood. We discuss the method and compare lifelines across the sample. We suggest that while there are areas of consensus (such as the hetero-normative goal of marriage and children by 35) the traditionally gendered transitions to adulthood are under pressure, a pressure that is exerted most strongly by working class young people. Through three contrasting case studies we illustrate how the ways in which young people imagine their futures are constrained by the resources and possibilities of their particular social locations.